


Eidos (The Naming of Cats Remix)

by havocthecat



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Character Death, F/F, Femslash, Remix, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-20
Updated: 2007-07-20
Packaged: 2017-10-02 12:25:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havocthecat/pseuds/havocthecat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Really, now, thinks Vala. If a little thing like immolation wasn't going to have her bowing and scraping to the Ori, what makes them think this will?</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Eidos (The Naming of Cats Remix)

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a remix of [Vengeance](http://community.livejournal.com/meeshs_fandoms/64322.html), by Meesh, and was originally posted [here](http://community.livejournal.com/havocs_cry/18586.html) on LJ.

She's never been gifted with the rather conveniently altered memories that the Tau'ri seem to be afflicted by. It would be so much easier, she thinks, to remember things as she _wishes_ they had been, rather than remembering them as they _are_.

When she'd first read about all those Tau'ri studies on memory and perception - if she was going to be living among these people, she'd better learn about how they thought - she'd printed out the results and gone straight to Teal'c, the papers clutched in her slightly damp hands.

"They don't remember properly," Vala had said. She stood just inside Teal'c's quarters, the spicy scent of his candles wafting through the room.

Teal'c had inclined his head. "They do not."

Vala flounced toward the bed and collapsed on it, heaving a very large, very heavy sigh that was only partly theatrical. "That's very frustrating."

"Indeed." That was all he'd needed to say. Vala had learned pretty damn fast how much one 'indeed' could encompass.

"Right. So. Are they better about it than half the galaxy, at least?" she'd asked, turning onto her side and giving the poor man a sympathetic grin.

"Perhaps three-quarters of the galaxy." It was amazing how much Teal'c could say with just the lift of a single eyebrow. "General O'Neill is often quite infuriating, however."

"Is he really? Cats were a common animal throughout the galaxy, and so the expression 'she looked like the cat that had eaten the canary' had applied to Vala for many, many years. More years than she ever likes to think about. "I'll have to meet the man some time."

"Indeed," Teal'c had said, this time meaning 'I hope I am very far away at that moment.'

***

Right now, Vala wishes she were very far away. The _ever_ so devout - and angry - followers of Origin on P4Y-875 had started by breaking her wrist, and when she wouldn't repent of her myriad, endless numbers of sins, they'd started in on beating the rest of her body.

When she'd refused to say a word, they'd brought out knives, and then she'd cried out in pain. May as well give them what they want. She always saves her strength and waits for a weak point. Easier to escape when she's got an opening, but she's not given any. None that will let her get the rest of her team out too, and these people want to make them all suffer.

So Vala watches, and she waits. Right now she's got her hands shackled in front of her, and she's being held up by an over-friendly jailer. One of his hands is roaming over her body, and the other holds her chin, forcing her to watch as a whip lashes against Daniel's broad, muscled back. He's gritting his teeth, but Vala knows to the second how long it will take for him to break.

Quetesh had made a habit of breaking the difficult prisoners, and she'd always made Vala watch. Sometimes Vala still wakes up from nightmares, sweating and hearing the susurrations of Quetesh's voice echoing in her skull.

Vala knows - has known for a very long time - that she's never going to stop having nightmares.

When Daniel screams in pain, Vala cries out too. "Stop it!" she yells, and that earns her a blow to the face.

Daniel shakes his head at her, and she grins, still cheeky, and doesn't pay attention to the blood running down her chin from the split lip. She thinks that she'd like one of those gods-bedamned sarcophagi right about now, never mind how awful withdrawal was before.

"You want to be forgiven, you call the Priors!" Vala's shouting now. They chain Daniel up, hang him from the wall, and drag Cameron in. Vala can't stop talking, can't stop trying _anything_. "You show them to us while we're still alive, they'll forgive you any sins you want. You think they want us dead?"

She only falls silent when they start to pour boiling oil on Cameron's skin. He doesn't take long at all to start screaming, especially not when they make sure to trace the scars from his X-302 accident with burning coals. His screams earn him a reprieve, and the bastards chain him up next to Daniel.

Cameron's back scrapes up against the metal walls of their jail. Every movement has him hissing in pain, but he meets her eyes solidly. "Nice place we've got here," he says. It's almost like an ordinary day at Stargate Command. "Like a five star hotel, only better. Your boyfriend treating you nice?"

All that torture, all that pain, and what does the man do? Defy them even more. She loves him for it, but it's not going to do a whole lot of good. Vala chuckles, low in her throat, as her over-friendly jailer squeezes her breast and leans forward to slobber on her throat. "All part of the package," she murmurs.

Vala endures. That's what she's always done, and she's very, very good at it. She grits her teeth when Teal'c is brought in. He's a big man, and Teal'c of Tau'ri is a very influential man among the Jaffa Nation, so they bring out their prize brainwasher as they break his fingers, one by one.

Repentance and conversion to the ways of the Ori would stop the pain, says their brainwasher, who delicately doesn't look as Vala's little boyfriend starts tugging up her shirt. The brainwasher doesn't let her gaze flicker away from Teal'c eyes, either, as his left kneecap is smashed, and then his right kneecap.

He turns and smiles when Vala damns them to all the hells Quetesh threatened her followers with. Vala doesn't believe in hell any more, but it's still a nice thought.

"You have the chance to save your friends from further harm." P4Y-875 has some good tailors, notes Vala absently. Looks like Mr. Brainwasher here has a nicer one than any of the common torturers around these parts. She'll have to strangle him with his own clothing one of these days. The seams won't rip. "Simply repent."

Really, now, thinks Vala. If a little thing like immolation wasn't going to have her bowing and scraping to the Ori, what makes them think this will?

The humming of the naquadah in her veins reacting to Sam's presence freezes Vala's blood. "Stop it," she says, as the door opens and Sam is flung to the ground, only half-conscious.

Teal'c is in shock as they chain him up. Cameron's only half-conscious from the infection. Daniel's still awake, and the look in his eyes as he stares at Sam says that if he weren't chained, he'd laugh with glee as he shot every single one of their jailers.

He's a lovely man, with just enough devil-may-care in him to be even more attractive, but Vala's never noticed him looking at _her_ like that. Just Sam.

There's blood matting Sam's hair, and while she reacts to the torture, she's just not nearly alert enough to make their jailers happy. They drag her away, with promises to bring her back when she's more awake.

The little, insignificant creature that's been molesting her for the past few hours takes that as a cue to shove Vala down. His pants are around his ankles, and Vala's drab, boring olive slacks are halfway down to her knees when she bites his nose off.

A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do, right?

She spits out the bit of flesh and tugs up her pants as best she can, then draws herself up, ignoring the blood and acting every inch the goddess that Quetesh taught her to be. "The Orici wouldn't like it very much if she learns you've raped her mother," says Vala, her voice low. They're in more danger now than they have been before.

Play this con wrong, and their jailers will slit their throats and bury them all in a shallow grave, hoping that the Priors never learn what they've done. Play it right, and Vala can get them all a one-way pass back to the 'gate. Hell, she'll even settle for some quality time alone in a jail cell so they can find a way to escape.

"What do you mean?" asks their brainwasher, squatting down to squint at her. He tries not to stare down, but Vala knows he wants her. He wants her even though her would-be rapist has one hand clapped over his nose and is holding up his pants with the other hand.

"The Orici. Didn't the Priors tell you?" Vala smiles and leans forward, whispering. "She's been searching for her long-lost mother. She wants to teach me the path."

Their rather ineffective brainwasher blanches. Vala doesn't blame him. Adria is, quite frankly, a terrifying little brat of a girl.

"I don't think she'd like to know what you've been up to," said Vala. "She's quite fond of me, shameless heretic though I am. Said she'd even welcome my friends if I would just embrace Origin."

"You could not possibly be--" starts the brainwasher.

"The mother of the Orici?" Vala flips her hair back and stares down her nose at him. "Don't be ridiculous. The girl looks just like me. Call the Priors. You can either earn Adria's gratitude by keeping us safe, or you can have her give the order for you to be burned alive for harming us. She's done it before."

She hadn't, since the Ori don't like to lose followers, but _this_ little man didn't need to know that. Vala keeps her gaze steady on his. Her father had taught her how to lie properly. The lesson had been more valuable than he ever had.

The brainwasher stands. Vala smiles knowingly and stands along with him. Keep up the appearance of authority, and no one will question it. Another lesson from her dear old dad.

Teal'c's harsh, rasping breaths give way to his voice. "Vala, do not--"

"Be silent," snaps Vala. Her gaze pleads with him to understand, and he falls silent. "We will put our case before the Orici when she arrives."

His slow, thoughtful nod is the last thing she sees as the brainwasher takes her by the elbow and leads her from the room. It's not gentle, but it's not designed to cause her pain either. Vala suppresses a smug look at the progress she's made.

The two guards outside remove the shackles on the brainwasher's orders. "Take her to the cell with the blonde woman. I will speak with the Prior when he arrives."

It's an almost absent thought as the guards drag her roughly away, but Vala wonders why they've never seen a female Prior.

***

They throw her into a cell with Sam, who can't remember a thing about how this mission has gone so horribly, horribly wrong.

For a split second, hate flashes through Vala. She shoves it away. There's no time for hate, or love, or anything but getting themselves the hell _out_ of here.

When it all comes down to the wire, Vala's very, very good at surviving. So she tells Sam what happened. In the dim gray of the cell, she can't see how Sam reacts, but she can hear it. They're leaning against the wall, and Vala shifts to the side so that she's leaning against Sam as well. Her read on Sam's nonverbal reactions lets her know what to gloss over, and points what to drive home.

"They beat us. They beat me so hard they broke my wrist." Vala swallows. She's very thirsty right now. It's a bad sign. "I've been tortured before. When I lost my Goa'uld symbiote."

Sam flinches against her, and Vala falls silent for an instant. She hates the Tok'ra for their hypocrisy almost as much as she hates the Goa'uld for everything they've done to her.

"It was nothing like this." It hadn't been. The Tok'ra had been almost clinical while trying to get the memories of Quetesh to rise to the surface. "There was so much anger, so much hatred--" Vala's voice breaks, and she mentally slaps herself. She's got to keep it together. "You don't remember _any_ of what they did to us?"

She both feels and hears the deep breath Sam takes, and she's pretty sure Sam just closed her eyes. "I want to remember."

Vala doesn't answer, just slips down into darkness and wishes she could forget.

***

She wakes in a panic, with the scent of seared flesh clogging her nostrils. Her memory comes back quickly. "Sam?"

"I'm here." Sam reaches out in the darkness, and Vala feels Sam's hand close around hers.

She resists the urge to tell Sam that they should really go on a date before they start holding hands. There will be plenty of time for that later, when they're all out of here.

_If_ they all get out of here.

Vala takes a mental inventory of what little she has left. They've found most of her lock picks, and her dominant hand has a broken wrist attached to it. She _could_ grab a hair pin and work on the lock with her other hand, but Sam's always so proud of her ability to open any door she's not supposed to. Besides, it'll hurt Vala less if Sam does it.

It's easy enough to let Sam believe that Vala can't pick a lock. It gives Sam something to focus on, while Vala cradles her wrist for the next hour or so and plans bloody vengeance on their jailers. It's a nice fantasy, at least, and she can tell Teal'c all about it when they have another movie night. There's not a whole lot else to do for entertainment when one is living on base, and no one else on Earth understands revenge like Teal'c does.

***

When they escape and find Teal'c's dead body hanging alongside Cameron and Daniel's corpses, Vala gives a bloodthirsty smile. If there really is an afterlife, she'll meet Teal'c there some day. She'll tell him all about her plans for payback, and how they play out.

As they leave, she hears Sam vowing the same thing. Vala shoves the GDO she's found in her pocket and clasps Sam's hand. Sometimes the Tau'ri do remember, and she knows that Sam will never forget this.

\--end--


End file.
